In recent years, “a federal Ireland” became a vivid slogan among a relatively small circle of radical Irish Republicans. For almost two decades, the small Republican Sinn Féin party remained the keeper of the grail, calling for a federal solution to secure “a lasting peace”. This federal solution has been tightly linked to the Éire Nua programme.

Following the split of the Provisional Republican Movement at the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in 1986, the abstentionists around former Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and IRA leader Dáithí Ó Conaill set up Republican Sinn Féin. The party soon re-adopted the Éire Nua programme, calling for the federal United Republic as their preferred solution for a re-united Ireland.

However, in the past decade, while those opposing the politics of (Provisional) Sinn Féin increasingly splintered, more and more organisations adopted federalism. Among those are the 32CSM; sections of the 1916 Societies, most notably their former PRO Seán Bresnahan; independent Republicans, most of them emerging from the RSF orbit over the past five years and their US-supporters, and, most recently, individuals such as former Dublin Provisional Matt Treacy. In other words, among radical Republicans, federalism is en vogue!

To be sure, the release of state papers indicating that Provisional Republicans and UVF discussed the proposal for a federal Ireland in 1988 came in the midst of increasing interest in federalism in the shadow of Brexit and border poll debates (see here, here, and here).

The idea of “a federal solution” circulated among Irish Republicans since the 1960s and was put in place with the publication of the Éire Nua programme by the Provisional Republican Movement in 1971/2. In this programme, the Provisionals, then led by their President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, called for the establishment of a federal democratic All-Ireland Republic with Athlone as its capital following a British military withdrawal.

The Éire Nua programme was undeniably linked with the Southern-based leadership of the Provisionals. When the Northern “Young Turks” rose to prominence following the failed IRA ceasefire in the mid-1975, they attacked Éire Nua to further discredit and, eventually, oust the Southern Republican leaders from their positions.

In 1982, the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis dropped the policy and deleted all references from its constitution. One year later, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh stood down as President of the party and was replaced by Gerry Adams. Vice President Dáithí Ó Conaill, also an advocate of Éire Nua, had also stepped down and federalism disappeared from the politics of Sinn Féin.

So, while Irish and British media think it’s a story in itself that Provisional Republicans met UVF representatives for talks in 1988, the real astonishment is that they met to discuss “federalism”, a policy dropped by Sinn Féin already five years earlier.